12MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

There was much speculation aboutthe next trip. We planned to put theentire group out in the southernbranch as nearly 800 meters of passagehad been seen down this routeand several leads remained, all ofwhich were poised for possible connectionsto nearby Sotano del R!oIglesia. Jim, Jill and Steve tooka sling of climbing gear, a dynamicrope and went high. Richard, Hal andI took eight coils of static ropeand went down a narrow stream can-­yon. Below, things soon got tightand we found ourselves inching a­long, religiously shooting the surveyas we went. We shortly begandescending a series of steep chuteswith the stream disappearing andreappearing through slots in thefloor. I stopped at one point,bridging over some deep fluted potholesto change carbide. Richardwas timing his burns to mine andpaused a short ways ahead to changeas well. In doing so he managed todrop the gasket into a small plungepool. Ninety-nine percent of thetime a pool that size would not havebeen but a quarter of a meter deep,but this one seemed bottomless. Iwent about closing up my pack, assuminghe would just dig out a spareand carryon. Through the cornerof my eye I watched with disbeliefas he took a deep breath and dove inhead long. Soon Hal and I were bothstaring at two boots and littlemore sticking out of this tiny pool.Thirty long seconds later he poppedback out, beaming and holding thecantankerous gasket. A short waybeyond Hal cried out, "Rope drop,all right!" All along we had entertainedthe thought that this mightbe the bypass to the 859 sump, butto do that we had to start droppingrapidly. This drop appeared to bethe sign we were looking for. Richardand Hal rappelled in and werewaiting on a ledge below. As soonas I racked something struck meoddly about this place. The feelinggrew as I descended until finally I52was sure. "Connection," I calledout. "Where?" Richard fired back."Upstream Metro." This was thefurthest point of penetration reachedby Tommy, Hal and I on our reccefrom Camp III. We tied in the survey.Back at the rope in the maintrunk we found a note:"Mapped roughly 175m in 22 stationsinto the breakdown. Climbup the wall successful. No passageon top."I passed this along to Hal and clippedon my ascenders. The rope wasgrossly muddy and it was the case ofthe old two steps forward and one stepbackward as the cams failed to catch.I envisioned sliding all the way tothe floor more than once. Up top Iwas confronted with yet another note."Off rope," I called out and lookedat the paper."Amigos: Estamos rigos ropos ondropos con boing-line. So avoidoslagos. "Meaning apparently that they were goingto try and rig Yellow Bag Domewith their dynamic rope and use thisshorter route back to camp. Much toour surprise there was no rope in theshaft when we arrived. "Short ropedagain!" I thought, knowing what musthave happened. Again we tied everythingtogether and tossed it in.This time it reached, although it wasa bumpy descent with three knots. Iclimbed up the breakdown a way to getout of the blast zone and wait forthe others. About this time I glancedto the right and noticed a fissurewhich had previously caught my eye.Curious I thought, as everything goingin that direction mysteriouslystopped at all levels. Richard hadby now negotiated the final knot andbounded the remaining twenty metersto the floor. He undid his rack andstumbled up the slope towards me.